The present invention relates to a system for controlling the administration of remotely-proctored, secure examinations at a remote test station, and a method for using the system to administer remotely-proctored, secure examinations.
In administering secure, proctored examinations such as the SAT, GRE, GMAT, MCAT, LSAT, professional qualification examinations, and other such examinations, much time and effort is spent ensuring the integrity of the examination. First, the test taker must be properly registered. It is essential that only those persons who are qualified are registered to take the examination. Second, it is important to ensure that only persons who are registered are allowed to take the examination. The integrity of any test is damaged, of course, if tests are taken by persons other than those who are properly registered. It is also important that the test be properly proctored to ensure that cheating does not take place. Lastly, the test question information must be secure from theft, unauthorized access and alteration. All of the above security measures require significant expense and manpower.
Ensuring the integrity of an examination becomes even more burdensome when the examination is given at a number of remote sites. It has thus long been desired to automate the above security measures to allow the efficient, cost-effective and secure administration of tests at remote locations.
Attempts have been made to achieve some of these goals in related areas of technology. U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,180, to Riley, discloses a system for the administration of driver's tests. This patent discloses an automated booth for taking driver's test, but the system is limited to driver's tests and is not sufficiently comprehensive and secure to administer a large number of different standardized tests at a large number of remote test sites.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,195,033 and 5,204,813, both to Samph et al., disclose testing systems in which a central computer is connected to a number of assessment centers for the administration of tests. However, the systems disclosed in these patents are insufficient to ensure the verification of test takers and the security of the test question data.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,120, to Griffin et al., discloses a student response system which centrally processes student response data from a number of classrooms. However, the system disclosed cannot meet the strict validation, proctoring and security requirements of most standardized tests.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,528, to Wise et al., discloses an automated voting system in which voters are registered and certified, but it does not provide a system with sufficient security for test question data.
The present inventors have developed the current state of the art computer network used to deliver computerized standardized examinations. Years of development time and millions of testing events have proven the existing system to be a sound and robust method of testing. The current system involves a software platform which delivers an exam on local networks which are supported world-wide by a centralized master network. The master network downloads the exams to the testing centers, and picks up the completed test files after the exam has been completed by the candidate.
This current network utilizes registration centers which employ registrars who answer phone requests from candidates and manually enter in personal demographic information, test selection, and payment information. These registrars schedule the candidate into a specific testing center location on a specific day and time.
The test centers are comprised of local networks on which the exam is delivered to the candidate. System administrators employed at the test centers check-in the scheduled candidate, and confirm the candidates identity by verifying official forms of identification. Once this is completed, the candidate is seated at a designated testing station, where the administrator will launch the examination process. The Administrators proctor the examination event to ensure that the candidate does not use any supplementary items to cheat on the exam, and are available to respond to any problems which occur.
Despite its advantages, the current state of the art nonetheless requires significant manpower to register persons for examinations, to ensure that only registered persons take the exams, to proctor examinations, and to secure the test question data.